Apologies, Restaurant Reviews, the Documentary "Bidder 70"

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Tim DeChristopher and members of Peaceful Uprising, the grassroots, nonviolent environmental action group he founded, protest in Washington DC. From "Bidder 70," directed by Beth and George Gage
(Released by First Run Features.)

Dave Bry talks about how apologizing to everyone from his date to a junior high school dance to his cancer-stricken father has helped him come to terms with his past. Then, Raymond Sokolov on watching the food world change since 1971, when he was named food editor at the New York Times. And the directors of the documentary “Bidder 70” tell the story of Tim DeChristopher, who was sent to prison after he successfully bid against energy and mining companies to buy 22,000 acres of land in Utah with no intention of drilling on it.

Raymond Sokolov became food editor of the New York Times in 1971, and he discusses his long, memorable career as restaurant critic, food historian, and author. In Steal the Menu: A Memoir of Forty Years in Food, he traces the food scene he reported on in America and abroad, from backwoods barbecue shack in Alabama to molecular gastronomy at El Bulli in Spain.

In their documentary “Bidder 70,” Beth Gage and George Gage tell the story of Tim DeChristopher. In 2008, as George W. Bush tried to give the energy and mining industries thousands of acres of pristine Utah wilderness via a widely disputed federal auction, DeChristopher, then a college student bid $1.7 million, and won 22,000 acres with no intention to drill. For this act of civil disobedience he was sent to federal prison, but his actions helped ignite a movement. “Bidder 70” opens May 17 at the Quad.

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